A blue and white screen tile, Qing dynasty, Kangxi (1662-1722).

Purchased from the: “Private Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain”, Gardiner Houlgate, The Bath Auction Rooms, England, March 2011, Lot 330.

The Avalon Collection.

This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction.

Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.

Pair of blue and white porcelain tiles of similar proportions, decorated with scenes from the “Xixiangji” were sold at Christie’s New York, 16-17 September 2010, Lot 1421 and a single tile at Sotheby’s, London, 18th November 1986, Lot 88.
A similar example but with a scene from “The Investiture of the Gods” see “ An Era of Inspiration: 17th Century Chinese Porcelain from the Collection of Julia and John Curtis”, Christies, New York, 16 March 2015, Lot 3590.

A woodblock illustration to “Xi Xiang Ji”, “Romance of the Western Chamber”, showing a lone figure in a landscape, can be seen in an edition published by Wang Jide, ed.,1614, from Wang Shifu, “The Moon and the Zither: The Story of the Western Wing”, Berkeley, 1991, fig 17.